On Thursday afternoon, Wolf Blitzer grilled White House Press Sec. Jay Carney over President Barack Obama’s insistence that he will refuse to negotiate with Republicans over the next increase in the nation’s debt ceiling. Blitzer asked Carney to explain why the circumstances were different when Obama was a senator and voted against an increase in the debt ceiling under President George W. Bush.

Blitzer began by noting that Obama will be “the first president in a long time who won’t negotiate with the opposition to try to raise the debt ceiling.”

After running a clip of the president saying, “if you like your doctor, you like your plan, then you can keep your doctor, you can keep your plan,” Blitzer said that wasn’t the case.

“As you know a lot of people are not going to be able to keep their doctor or keep their plan under this system,” Blitzer said. “What do you say to them?”

Carney denied Blitzer’s charge.

“Well, Wolf, when you say a lot of people, that simply is not true,” Carney said. “If you have employer provided health insurance, that health insurance will not change when Obamacare takes effect and the marketplace is open on Jan. 1, and the options that you have will not change unless your employer decides to change them.”

Carney attempted to explain how people with pre-existing conditions and others could now have coverage and at lower costs than before.

“Hold on a second,” Blitzer said. “All of that is true, but you know that there are companies like UPS, Home Depot and a lot of other companies that are taking full-time employees, making them part-time employees, eliminating their healthcare benefits.”

Blitzer also explained that those people could not keep their benefits – and may not even be able to keep their doctor.

The peasants no longer seem to know their place. If only there were a profession whose mission it was to afflict the comfortable and comfort the afflicted...

It’s easy to dismiss Obama’s claim on factual grounds. More interesting is to see what prompted it: a soda-straw view of the world in which only the president’s inauguration-day priorities are visible. His aim then was to bring home U.S. troops, end the “endless war” of George W. Bush, defend the homeland from al-Qaeda and step back from the quagmire of the Arab Middle East. He did all that; ergo, the world is more stable — and from the attenuated perspective of an American who mainly wishes the world would go away, perhaps it is.

This definition of stability, however, requires ignoring all that would disturb it — anything that might demand new military commitments or deeper U.S. engagement with Arabs and their seemingly endless conflicts.

... Obama warned the General Assembly on Tuesday that “the danger for the world is that the United States, after a decade of war . . . may disengage, creating a vacuum of leadership that no other nation can fill.” Sadly, it is not just a danger. It was the message of his speech — and the tangible result of his presidency.

Ouch. And the hits just keep on comin':

IN HIS second inaugural address, President Obama delivered a ringing pledge of U.S. support for American ideals around the world. “We will support democracy from Asia to Africa, from the Americas to the Middle East,” he promised, “because our interests and our conscience compel us to act on behalf of those who long for freedom.”

Just eight months later, the idealism is gone. In what may be the most morally crimped speech by a president in modern times, Mr. Obama explicitly ruled out the promotion of liberty as a core interest of the United States. Instead, he told the U.N. General Assembly on Tuesday, America’s core interests consist of resisting aggression against allies; protecting the free flow of energy; dismantling terrorist networks “that threaten our people” and stopping the development and use of weapons of mass destruction.

...has a president ever boasted that promoting democracy will not be a core interest?

...Presidents from Franklin D. Roosevelt to John F. Kennedy to Ronald Reagan have promoted these “practices” not just to “achieve peace and prosperity,” as Mr. Obama said, but because they believed deeply that every human being has an inalienable right to live in freedom and dignity and that the United States is uniquely positioned to help other people achieve those rights.

This President seems to be racking up a lot of "firsts": first President to refuse to negotiate with the other party over the debt ceiling, first President to state that promoting democracy is not a core interest...

Obama chooses odd issues to take the lead on.

Posted by Cassandra at September 27, 2013 07:56 AM

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Comments

“Hold on a second,” Blitzer said. “All of that is true, but you know that there are companies like UPS, Home Depot and a lot of other companies that are taking full-time employees, making them part-time employees, eliminating their healthcare benefits.”

True but here's something simpler to look at: Call all the Blues (Blue Cross/Blue Shield insurance companies) across the US and ask how many letters they've sent out telling people the health plans in which they're currently enrolled can't be renewed in 2014. I got one; I've read that at least two other people (Michelle Malkin and some politician whose name escapes me) got these letters also from Blues other than my NJ one.

So ask the Blues - and then ask them what percentage of their private customers were impacted. I'd love to see the numbers.

'protect the free flow of energy'
WTF?
He's ignored the free flow of energy *inside* this country (limited new drilling, war on coal), shelved the Keystone pipeline (infuriating our closest neighbor and ally), and is gutting my (yeah, our) Navy.

Mandatory health insurance is a truly bad idea. Mind you, voluntary health insurance is also a bad idea, because insurance companies (understandably) act like you're trying to squeeze blood from a stone whenever you try to claim.

Self-insurance is hardly practicable in the event of a catastrophic health incident (cancer comes to mind).

Not sure what options are really available. I'm so glad President BHOmbastic isn't in charge of my country.